The Monster Post!

So life has been crazy the past few weeks, and school hasn't helped. It might help if when doing research at school, funny things didn't pop up on the computer like this:

Is that crazy or what? I was researching the beliefs of Puritans and the belief of Predestination, and one of the things that came up on the list was "what are the ten commandments". Is it just me, or is that sad? It is crazy to think that that question would be asked so commonly, but I guess that's just the society that I live in.

Along with getting distracted at school, I have the habit of getting distracted at home as well. If you were to look at my room, it would be apparent that I work on several projects at a time. I will start one, then start another and another before I have even come close to finishing the first one.

On my desk alone, there are several projects. I have a painting, earrings, nail art, jewelry work, and several other things in the process just on my desk. At least it is cleaner than my room looked in July. My desk looked about the same, but on top of that, my floor and bed were covered in t-shirts and all other types of crafts. Since the mess is now confined to my desk, I can say that I have been extremely successful in cleaning my room! Besides, this is a creative and productive mess-not a sloppy and pointless one.

One more random thing before I get to what really happened. My dad built a door for the pizza oven.Now we can make make breads as well as pizza!

I am all ready to make some bread, and you had better believe that I will get it perfected. I guess I never put  a picture of the oven up when we finished it, so here is a picture of the whole oven.

We got to crank out the oven recently for my brother Sam's 8th birthday. We had family over to celebrate, so we made pizza. It is truly the best pizza that I have ever had. Sam's birthday was great, and he was so cute, and extremely proud of the choice he made to become a baptized member of our church.

Isn't he cute! He was so happy.

For my church youth activity this week, we made dessert shooters. Imagine that! Several Mormon girls made mini desserts in shot glasses. We had fun and made some delicious desserts like:

Cherry Cheesecake,

Lemon Custard,

and Brownie Sundae

They were delicious, and so easy to make! And since they were so small, it wasn't hard to eat to eat all six of them.

Saturday was mom's birthday, and we decided to celebrate it in Coeur d'Alene. We went to the Brazilian grill that's in down town called The Grill from Ipanema. That food was so good! Although it wasn't my very favorite type of food, their marinated chicken, grilled vegetables, and grilled pineapple are to DIE for! They come around with the meat, pineapple, and vegetables on skewers, then slice it straight off the skewers onto your plate. We left there so full!

After our late lunch, we went to one of my favorite childhood places, the park in Coeur d'Alene. I loved this park so much because it has "Fort Sherman" in it. I have so many fond memories playing in this beautiful play area that is in the park just across the street from the lake.

It is one of the coolest wooden playgrounds that probably exists on the face of the planet. Not only does it look cool, but it is so fun to play in. You can walk or crawl all over inside it, which gives plenty of room for exploration.

"Chimes" to play inside the "fort"

It was such a neat experience to be able to go back to this park and walk around in it after so many years.

The best part of the past two weeks though...Thursday night's football game against Shadle Park. Events of that game have been on Good Morning America, the Today Show, and Sports Center to name a few. To tie the game, Austin Rehkow kicked a 67 yard field goal. It is the third farthest record for High School, and it beats the NFL record by a few yards. He was an overnight sensation, and was just about all anyone could talk about at school the next day.

What he did was incredible! There are so many videos on YouTube of his kick. In one of them, the most common one, his mom yells something along the lines of "let's go Rehkow!", and then screams once he makes it. Another one, is from the side of the opposing team, and it's pretty funny to hear them say "no...no...no" when he kicks. People like him make me proud to go to Central Valley High School and be a bear. He was such an overnight sensation that when he went to sleep that night, he had 130 friend requests on facebook, and thirty more when he woke up in the morning. He even has his own internet meme already.

This picture obviously wasn't taken at the same game, but it still has Austin kicking and Scott holding the ball for him. It was so funny on Friday at school since I sit next to Scott in my third period class. All we did that entire class was watch videos of the kick and talk about what had happened, what was happening, and what could happen. We were still both in shock, but ready to accept that it had really happened. Being a CV bear means so much more now, and we will say with much more emphasis at football and basketball games the cheer that's "Austin Rehkow (clap, clap, clap clap clap). Go Bears!

Conference weekend!

General Conference was this weekend, and some HUGE announcements were made that will change my life and the lives of others forever. It was announced that young men can now leave for their missions once they are 18 and have graduated from high school, instead of when they are 19. But something that has an even greater impact on me, is that young women can now leave on their missions at age 19 instead of 21. That change was monumental! There are going to be so many more sister missionaries now, since that announcement has been made. For me personally, this means that I will probably serve a mission, when I had previously thought that I wouldn't ever serve one. The news of this also spurred some funny responses that were seen all over facebook.

They crack me up! And to be completely honest, they might be at least partially true. Conference was great though, and it will definitely be something that we all will remember.

Long before Conference though, we got our garden ready for winter. This entailed harvesting all of the food, and tearing out all the plants. We had to pick so many tomatoes prematurely, which left us with a huge box of green tomatoes. These will be made into delicious tomatillo salsa. Yes, they aren't truly tomatillos, but we didn't plant any this year so they will have to do.

I wasn't kidding when I said that it was a huge box! The salsa will be good though!

Wednesday was one of the best days this week. I got my senior parking pass during fifth period that day. So I went from this pass,

to this beautiful pass.

I feel so lucky! The 49th spot is the last senior parking spot, so I barely got a spot. I know that I will really enjoy the benefits of having this spot that is much closer to the school than I would have otherwise, especially since the weather is getting colder. Needless to say, Wednesday was a day of rejoicing for all of us seniors who were fortunate enough to get these passes.

Let's not forget about those wonderful Friday night High School football games. This last Friday was the rivalry game against University High School: the Greasy Pig. I got to take pictures of the game and halftime show at this event, which was pretty cool, but not the first time that I have done something like this. The referees were so picky, and were yelling at everyone that were on the sidelines. Even those of us with special privileges like the press pass that I had and the coaches were yelled at. It was a tad bit ridiculous. At any other game that I have taken pictures at, this has never happened before.

I love stadium lights when you have a good camera! The moon was also gorgeous that night.

It was so unbelievably cold at the game though! I was not super smart, and didn't bring a jacket or gloves. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt, but it didn't really cut it. Luckily, Ashleigh and Connor came to watch the game, and I chatted with them a little bit after half time before the game started again. Connor insisted that I wear his leather gloves, and even though they were huge (the fingers were and inch too long for one), they probably saved my fingers, and I was to thankful for them. Thank you guys so much!

I know that neither of you really liked this picture, but it looks just fine to me! I am honestly so blessed to have the two of you as my friends. I got some pretty good pictures of the actual game and the band and marching band at half time, but I am saving those as a surprise for the yearbook. I also got a few good crowd and cheerleader shots, but those aren't usually as cool as the other ones. The best part? We owned! We crushed U-HI 47-14. We were expected to win, but the score was still a little humorous.

Life-the Good and the Bad all in One!

Parties are generally a good place to start right? Well last week, I had the opportunity to go to a fun party at my friend Mackormick's house last Saturday (not last night, but the week before). His friend Whitley was turning 15, so he threw a surprise party for her.

That's most everyone at the party. It was such a fun group of kids, and when is night swimming not fun? I know it's not night in this picture, but we did swim at night-I promise!

Just after the group picture was taken, my friend Mitchell pointed out how beautiful the sun was. Washington has had so many fires in the state the past month or so, so the sun was really pink. The clouds over the sun looked cool too. I told Mitchell that I would take a picture of this and tag him in it on Facebook-that's how much he liked the sun.

The night before that, my sisters went to a party where they played the "Hunger Games" they each had a district that they were from, and everyone was really into it. My sisters had me be their "stylist" more or less, so I did their hair and makeup.

Julia's hair

Emilee's hair

I took some picture of them before they left. It was just too hard to resist! And of course, I had to do a little editing since it always makes things more fun!

I know that the cut-outs that I did were awful, but it was irresistible. And yes, I know it's cheesy, but I just had to!

Last week was Homecoming week. You know, the spirit days, the hall decorating, the football game, the Homecoming trophy, and the dance. The Spirit days? I dressed up for all of them but two. That was only because I didn't have any sports' logo clothing and I forgot about pajama day. The hall decorating? The juniors won this year, which is a bummer since we won the decorating the past two years! I went to go help decorate the hall last Monday night from six until nine. Yes it is a long time, but it is barely enough time if you do a good job. Our hallway was very plain this year compared to the past, which was probably why we lost. I still think that our hallway was better than the Juniors' though because theirs seemed extremely sloppy. Oh well! We won the football game against Lewis and Clark 31-0. I decked myself out with CV spirit for the game, and had a blast hanging out with friends there-mostly just Nathan though.

I took this picture when I got home from the game so that I would have a picture of how crazy I was. Yes, I did paint my hand then put the print on my face. The best part though was that it was outlined with gold glitter. The hardest part about doing that was that I really wanted to lick my lips, but I couldn't because they were covered in blue paint. I guess you can see it a little better in this picture:

It was pretty fun! What you can't see about my crazy get up though, are my crazy red skinny jeans and my royal blue zumba skirt. I figured that if I was going to the have some spirit, I might as well go all out since it is my senior year. Who won the Homecoming trophy? The seniors of course! We have it now for the second year in a row! There was no way that anyone was going to steal it from us! Oh and the dance? I couldn't tell you since I didn't go! I'm sure that everyone who went had a fun time, so you can ask them if you really want to know.

School's Back

So I'm not so sure how I feel about this. Summer was great, but so far school has had some interesting things about it as well. For starters, let's talk about how weird it is to be a senior. It didn't really hit me until senior sunrise. For those who don't go to CV or don't have this tradition at their school, all the seniors get together at the beginning of the year to watch the sunrise, and then get together at the end of the year to watch it set.

Yeah, it was pretty much one of the coolest things ever, but at the same time it was extremely anti-climatic. One of the best parts though, was to see everyone snuggled up in blankets at six in the morning.

Joslynn

Elle

McKay and Austin

Isn't everyone so cute (haha)! Even though many people were somewhat okay with my taking pictures of them that early in the morning, some were not so happy about it.


Derek wasn't too thrilled that I had a camera out.

But on this day, I gained a friend that I am sure will last an entire life time and then some: Nathan.

He was having a little too much fun since he knew that I had a camera out. Can you see why we get along so well with each other? After the sunrise, most everyone went to breakfast. My friends and I? We decided to be classy and went to the good old golden arches. I really don't like McDonald's at all though, so it was a little weird. I just got a hot chocolate.

Stay classy CV!

As I got to know my good friend Nathan a little better, I realized that he is pretty darn talented and that we have way too many things in common. For example:

1. We are the same height
2. We both play the piano (and currently take lessons from the same teacher)
3. We both played the violin (he still plays, while I quit several years ago)
4. We both like to talk REALLY fast
5. We are both way too full of energy
6. We also share a fascination with hair

I mean come on! I only listed a few, but it's still kind of crazy, right?

I mean, look at this? I wasn't kidding when I said that he likes hair. HE did this beautiful fishtail braid on my hair. There is however one thing that he can do that I wouldn't be able to do if my life depended on it. He can dance REALLY well, and I certainly cannot.

Okay, so since school started, I have found some interesting things written in some text books. There is always something good, but I have never run into anything like this before!

How cool is that? This book "belongs to the half blood prince" and was issued to "Lord Voldemort" as "new" and returned as a "horcrux". Not that I am a crazy Harry Potter fanatic, but this is hilarious. Something else cool that has happened since school started? I got to eat a for real "chupa-chup". It was truly the best sucker that I have ever had. It was "fresas con crema" (strawberries and cream).

I will definitely have to add this to the list of cool Mexican candy that I have had. The other cool thing was a sucker called a "semáforo" (stoplight).

Isn't it cool? It is red, yellow, and green like a stoplight. It was kind of hard to eat though. We have fun in Spanish class. For example, last week, a certain "un-named class member" threw his planner onto a ledge that's right below the skylight in the classroom. It was the nastiest thing because huge chunks of dust came falling down like snow.

That would be the planner. And that thing off to the left of the planner would be one of those chunks of dust that I was talking about.

Getting off the topic of school, last Saturday I had the opportunity to participate in a day of service with my church in honor of 9/11. We worked on clearing out and cleaning up an area in the community to be made into a bike path.

Here is my sister, Emilee, standing on a pile of rocks that we were digging out of the ground. This was one of the small piles, and certainly didn't have the biggest of all the rocks in it, but it has one or two decent sized rocks.

See this rock? I split it with my bare hands! Just kidding, we split it with the shovel when we were digging out a bigger rock. It was kind of cool though to see how clean the rock split.

This is one of the bushed that was cut down to be thrown away as we were clearing out the area. I truly just thought that it looked cool with how vibrant the berries were.



Nathan at Senior Sunrise

Sorry about this last random picture that really doesn't belong here in the post. I just had to show off this cool picture that I took of Nathan.